CAUTION: The New and Improved PayPal Email Scam

(I had planned on posting the “Why Mac OS X isn’t everything” post as I promised in my previous post, but I think that it’s more important that word about this gets out first)

Web 1.0 scam (for those of you who are only interested in the new scam, scroll down to “Version 2.0)

Back in 2002, there was a widespread PayPal email scam which warned users that PayPal had “problems” with their “computers” and required all users to “verify” their information with PayPal as they were afraid that your information might have been “affected”. In the end, every person who fell for that scam gave up their personal information to the “scammers”. This included things like your name, address, social security number, your mother’s maiden name, and most importantly: every single detail about your bank account and credit card number. The number of people affected by the scam must have been huge, considering how PayPal was already the site which many people were using to transfer funds online. This is what the scam looked like 5 years ago when we were still in the Web 1.0 phase:

These scams were pretty easily detectable, or at least they are a lot easier for many of us nowadays. The first picture claims “problems with one of our computer systems” which is extremely sketchy. Furthermore, they claim that your information might be affected, but they’re positive that your account balances are alright? Also, they actually claim themselves to be “an eBay company” at the bottom of the page, that really cracked me. Not to mention their horrible use of English, what with them wanting to take the “troubled system” offline and give all users that “repair their missing data” the next two incoming transfers for free. Then they continue on to make this statement which makes no sense at all: “If fees would normally apply, you will not pay anything for the next two incoming transfers you receive”. They might have gotten a 10 year old kid whose first language isn’t English to write that out for them. Furthermore, the address of the “Verification Page” is an IP address. However, 5 years later, scams have grown much more advanced and sophisticated, thus I present to you the “PayPal Email Scam Version 2.0″:

Why is it a scam?

First and most obviously, the email came from paypal@hotmail.com. This should immediately tell you it’s fake but many people tend to overlook it when they see the words “PayPal Team” in the sender with “Account Revalidation” in the subject. I received this email not too long ago in my Inbox claiming that “for safety concerns” they want me to “protect my account and reduce the instance of fraud on their website”. The irony… Their English has cleaned up quite a bit, but it’s weird that they want me to take some time out of my “online experience” to “update my personal records”. They also gave me one whole week to pass them my personal details verify my account, how kind of them But they warn me that if I don’t update my account, it will be suspended! Not to mention, they spell “paypal” without any capital letters at all. Last but not least, it came from the “PayPal UPDATE TEAM” with capital letters as if to encourage me to UPDATE. The best part is still probably this, check out when the mail was sent (left). There were 2 links in the page, the first one led to a site which looked like the original PayPal site while the second one was their very own User Agreement page. Their PayPal site looked like this:

At first glance, everything might seem normal. But take note of a few things. First there are a few options missing from the top right hand corner of the page. Also, the blue bar below the “Welcome”, “Send Money” and other options is missing which makes the site look a bit strange. Most importantly, the URL looks nothing like the legitimate PayPal URL. The most obvious flaw came when I could enter practically anything into my “Email Address” and “Password” fields and still access the page to “verify my account information”. That page looked exactly like the “Personal Account Verification” page from the 2002 PayPal scam. The page is really too long to be a legit one. PayPal never even asked that many questions when I signed up, let alone when I’m verifying information? How could I verify information if I didn’t even enter it in the first place? Unfortunately, I had actually just woken up from a nap when I saw the email and I fell for it. That was until I reached the verification page that I realised that the site was definitely fake. If some of you are still having doubts over it’s authencity, guess what I found when I tried to access the verification page 5 minutes later at the page where PayPal usually asks you to wait 5 seconds before redirecting you:

What do I do?

If you receive the scam, first of you DO NOT respond to it or click the links. You should immediately forward the email to spoof@paypal.com. That’s all you have to do, PayPal will take care of the rest. For those of you who reached my stage (ie. you entered your email and password and realised that it was a scam when you reached the verification page), I’d suggest you immediately change your password as they might have records of your entry. If you’ve already fallen for the scam and have given your personal information, I’d suggest you contact PayPal immediately about it as well as your local authorities, there’s nothing much you can do about it I’m afraid.

The only regret I have with writing this post is that few people will come across it. This site is still relatively unknown and I barely have a 100 visitors a day, many of whom might not read up till this point. For those of you who do, please get the word out. Either by linking to them this site or simply letting them know about it. Hopefully, we’ll be able to stop these scammers and educate everyone so that when the next one comes, we’ll be ready for it.

UPDATE: It seems like more than one person got it today, they sent everyone the same message on the same day from the same email address at the same time it seems. Here’s someone else who received it as well: http://www.gobinath.com/blog/2007/08/13/a-phising-mail-targeted-on-paypal-users.html

The eccentricity of Apple fans

There was a story running around the web quite recently about a man who felt that his thumbs were too big to allow him to easily use his iPhone. Thus, he went under the knife so that he could “wittle” (there’s no such surgical operation) his thumbs so that he’d be able to use his iPhone in a more convenient fashion. Despite the seemingly unreal nature of the story, the entire web, Apple fans and non-Apple fans alike, just gobbled it up with major sites such as Engadget reporting the story as well. At least, that was until North Denver News finally confirmed it was merely “satirical social commentary” (ie. it was fake). Thus, why would people be willing to believe such an unreal story?

For one simple reason: Apple fanboys have been known for their eccentricity.

With this story, Apple fans were all the more convinced that the iPhone is the best mobile phone ever, while non-Apple fans just shake their heads at us fans and reaffirm their belief that all of us are just crazy people. Being a Mac user myself, I hate to admit that this fact might be quite true. Over the years Apple fans have been tattooing themselves with Apple logos, folding origami Macs, lusting after the latest Apple products. No matter what the product is, Apple fans will forever be able to delude themselves into thinking it’s one of the best things in the world despite the inevitable flaws that every product will have. For example, the Macbook Pro is too hot, the iPod’s batteries aren’t removable and yet they require new ones after a few years and the iPhone has a ridiculous onscreen keyboard which fans seem to adore. I’m not blaming Apple for making inferior products mind you, any product will have its flaws, it’s just that Mac users  seem to be blind to any inadequacies at all.

Recently, a Japanese Apple fan also proved my point when he built an iPhone from scratch. He probably got too frustrated with the wait for the iPhone to reach Japan, thus he turned to doing another mock up of the iPhone (left). Sure, it’s not exactly the real thing, but this iPhone is no origami model, this Apple fan actually built the entire mock up from scratch using metal and wood. He has included every single feature, from the exact dimensions, to the buttons, and even glass for the camera. He could easily pass it off for the real thing, that is until somebody tries out the “touchscreen” that is. It’s truly amazing to see what Apple fans will do in their spare time.

Of course, one may also attribute such eccentric behaviour of fans to Steve Jobs himself. The co-founder of Apple more has been credited with the ability to create a “reality distortion field” or RDF. Being a confident and effective speaker, Steve has never failed to excite Apple fans at a Macworld keynote even if it were merely a simple or minor update to an already present product. He has this ability to suck you in to his own “field” at any keynotes presentation he’s in and make you believe that his products are practically flawless. The problem is, many fans don’t get out of his RDF.

Then again, it’s possible to understand why Apple fans are so crazy about their products to a certain extent. Being a Mac user for just over a year, I can only say that it’s a breath of fresh air after having used windows for around a decade (back when I was 5 years old the Disney website took several minutes to fully load on my 28.8kbps connection on Windows 3.1). There’s no doubt in my mind that Macs are clearly superior to Windows “boxes”, however they’re still really far away from being perfect. Yet, many Apple fanboys out there will beg to differ and still believe that these products are practically perfect in every way.

Personally, I’d definitely call myself an Apple fan. I’d take their products over Windows anytime, as Microsoft has constantly proved itself to be inept at creating almost any product at all (with the exception of their mice and keyboards I guess). However, the fact that I’m associated with this group of eccentric fans makes me uneasy and yet honoured at the same time. While it’s weird to have people think of you as one of those “weirdos”, I could never imagine not being a part of them as well.

More pictures of the iPhone mock up may be found here (the site is in Japanese): http://web.mac.com/aoshima731/iWeb/aoshima/Special.html
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To show why Apple’s products aren’t necessarily perfect, I’m publishing a post entitled “Why Mac OS X isn’t everything” in the near future (either tomorrow or the day after), so watch out for it.

Harry Potter and the Extended Universe?

By now, any self-respecting fan of Harry Potter would already have finished the 7th and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. As we all get excited about the ending of the decade long series of Harry Potter, many of us are probably wondering what’s in store for Harry. The series has come too far to just stop here after the 7th book, there are just so many possibilities left undiscovered. What happens to Harry and his friends in those 19 years? What happens after that? While some of these questions have been answered by J.K Rowling herself in this interview (FYI Harry and Ron are Aurors), the magical world of Harry Potter is far from over.

No I’m not referring to the yet to be released 6th and 7th film, I’m talking about an “Extended Universe”. Fans of other large franchises such as Star Wars (like myself) or Star Trek will be familiar with an Extended Universe, or an Expanded Universe as it’s sometimes called. According to Wikipedia:

The term Expanded Universe is generally used to denote the ‘extension’ of a media franchise (i.e. a television show, series of feature films, etc.) with other media (generally comics and original novels). This typically simply involves new adventures for existing characters already developed within the franchise; however in some cases entirely new characters and complex mythology are developed.

Essentially, it’s a whole new slew of books, comics or any other form of media that have got to do with the main franchise/series. Let’s take the Star Wars Expanded Universe as an example: officially, the Star Wars series it is only made up of the 6 movies which George Lucas has produced and directed, however over the years authors and artists alike have created countless number of novels and comics respectively, hence “expanding” the franchise way past 6 movies.

While some might argue that Harry Potter isn’t as established as Star Wars or Star Trek (which is true to a certain extent since the first Star Wars film was released 30 years ago), there’s no denying the fact that it’s an extremely well known brand. The Harry Potter series has spawned an amazing amount of merchandise, from soft toys, to figurines and even card games, not to mention 5 movies with 2 more still in the pipelines. Looking at it, there’s absolutely no reason as to why Harry can’t have his very own expanded universe.

Sure, there are movies and games out for Harry Potter, but that’s far from what most fans would want. The movies and games could hardly be considered an “expanded universe” in my opinion. Instead, novels and comics will be better able to fill up the empty void that is the lack of an eight Harry Potter book. It’s the same with the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the main focus is novels and at times comics, not games (in fact most Star Wars games have been pretty bad).

In fact, I can say with certainty that every single Harry Potter fan would want to see more novels or comics for the series. With J.K. Rowling reaffirming time and time again that she doesn’t see or feel the need to write another Harry Potter book, an Expanded Universe with tons of other authors is probably the next best thing. The Star Wars Expanded Universe has certainly been a major success, with many characters that appeared in the Expanded Universe reappearing in official releases. In fact, much of the Extended Universe is considered by fans to be part of the series as well. Seeing as how the last Star Wars movie was released 2 years ago, it’s not hard to see why. Without any new material from George Lucas himself, fans are now talking about the Expanded Universe like the material there was part of the film.

It has become so big that multiple “encyclopedias” have been released about the Star Wars universe as they have to be constantly revised. The same goes for Harry, with J.K Rowling herself indicating a certain amount of interest in writing a “Harry Potter Encyclopedia” in the near future. However, without J.K. Rowling pumping out anymore new material about him, fans are probably turning to all the authors around the world to crank up their creativity level and produce novels that can rival Rowling’s own.

While it does seem highly likely that an Expanded Universe will emerge sooner or later for the Harry Potter series (considering how vast that magical world is), it’s honestly quite surprising that there hasn’t been any such announcement yet. With the release of the final book, I had almost expected authors to be scrambling to write the first unofficial novel as fans would rush to read it in order to satisfy their hunger for more of this teenage wizard. Yet, if there are indeed such novels being planned, authors and publishers alike are definitely keeping mum about it.

Harry Potter has definitely progressed pass the stage of simply being another series of books, it has had a huge impact on “pop culture” in today’s world. Many of us have grown up alongside Harry Potter (myself included) and no fan would want to see him go. In fact, I dare say that the series is more popular than many other series like The Lord of the Rings for example, simply because Harry Potter reaches out to a wider range of readers as children, teenagers and adults alike are able to enjoy it (I personally never made it through the second book of the LotR series). It being such a significant series, it’s hard to imagine the day when the popularity of Harry Potter drastically diminishes.

Sooner or later an Expanded Universe is bound to surface, the world of Harry Potter is simply too vast and complex for authors to ignore. Furthermore there’s the added incentive of having almost the entire Harry Potter fan base craving for more adventures, thus there’s even lesser reason for authors to not write an unofficial Harry Potter novel. In essence, Harry Potter NEEDS an Expanded Universe because it’s unlikely that it will end right here and now after only a decade.

After all, EVEN Star Wars has been around for 3.

Finally some updates from Apple.

I’ve owned the iMac which I’m typing this on for slightly over a year. Up till now, I’ve always felt that it’s probably the most elegant personal computer around. Obviously, no other IBM PC has come close thus far (and probably none will ever) to beating the iMac in terms of design. After all, it’s hard to beat an all-in-one computer (which Steve has so often touted) with everything packed behind the LCD screen with everything amounting to only 2 inches thick. Those of you PC users who are reading this now, take a look at that huge chunk of CPU in front of you and tell me the iMac isn’t more elegant. Often, I’ve wondered how Apple will outdo itself in terms of design since this was, in my opinion, probably the best possible design for a personal computer

Boy was I wrong:

That’s right, new iMacs have just been introduced recently. They now sport a more iPhone-like look and feel as they’re now made out of aluminum and glass (which Steve repeated several times during the press event) and also sporting a glossy screen. Furthermore, the new iMac is even thinner than the previous one, which is a real technological marvel in my opinion considering how thin the previous iMacs already were. On the inside, you’ll find the usual upgrades to the computer’s RAM, processor speed, etc. I won’t bother listing them here since they’re easily available elsewhere on the web and any Apple fan will have already found the stats before they came to this site anyway.

Furthermore, the rumoured iMac keyboard which I blogged about awhile back turned out to be true (despite me not believing in the rumour). It’s now a much thinner keyboard with keys that resemble those found on a Macbook. I’ve always loved that keyboard since it makes typing a breeze, not to mention Apple has added several function keys to it which makes the keyboard all the more useful. My only gripe with it (which I’ve already stated in the previous post) is that the design of the keyboard looks pretty amateurish, since it seems like plastic keys were just stuck onto a flat piece of aluminum. Alas, Apple has decided to go along with that design anyway.

All in all, the new iMac directly contrasts the model it’s replacing since it’s covered in darker colours as compared to the pure white of previous iMacs. In my opinion, this is definitely a step forward in terms of design of the iMac as looks much more professional now as it’s covered in aluminum mostly, just like the Pro products which Apple has been developing all along.

It doesn’t stop there however, at the event, Steve also introduced both iLife 08 and iWork 08 as well. Usually, they would have been introduced at Macworld at the start of the year. Unfortunately, almost the entire of this year’s Macworld was devoted to the iPhone, thus iLife and iWork updates didn’t get to see the light of day. Finally, Apple has released updates to both it’s digital media hub applications as well as their productivity suite simultaneously. Both iLife and iWork have pretty major updates, with iMovie being a completely new application and Numbers being added to the iWork suite in order to complete it with a spreadsheet program. There are of course tons of other updates that were showcased at the event, and I’m sure there are even more updates within the programs themselves that did not get to be showcased during the event. However, from what has been showcased at the event, I think that I really need to get my hands on a copy of both iLife 08 and iWork 08.

Also, the Mac mini quietly got updated as well, though many don’t really know about it. All that changes is that the cheapest Mac contains a faster processor, more hard drive space and more ram (1gb by default). Other than that, it’s basically the same old Mac Mini. Still, I’m sure that these updates will satisfy many fans as well.

These updates are definitely welcome by all Apple fans (including myself) since the iMac is not only faster but looks even better than before as well. iLife and iWork finally get updated while the Mac Mini gains the usual speed/capacity updates as well.

Now all that’s left is that fabled touchscreen iPod…

Pagerank/Alexa update?

I just checked RandomMusings’ statistics and was pretty shocked by the results:

• Instead of having a Pagerank of “N.A.” like I’ve had all along in the past, it now reads “0/10″ which is really bad news for me. After 3 months, the site is still unable to gain a PR of even 1/10?
• However, on Alexa, I’m now ranked at around 3.3 million. I’m still REALLY low down, but it beats a ranking of 4.5 million like I’ve had in the past. At least I’ve jumped by more than a million spots. Still, that’s way too low.

If the statistics are true and Pageranks have indeed been updated (I’ve seen changes in Pagerank for a few other sites as well) I’m seriously discouraged by this news… The prognosis doesn’t look good for RandomMusings. I’ve tried quite hard to get word out about this site but to not much avail.

Guess I’ll just have to keep writing and wait a few more months for the next PR update

Comment if you see an update or not in other sites please.

WriteRoom (Mac only)

Being a pretty avid writer, I find it quite a hassle to have to type in the default WordPress “New Post” text box. While it definitely has pretty advanced features, considering that it’s not a desktop application, I usually avoid using it when i can, for some reason or another. I’m always worried that I’ll accidentally hit something wrong or something might go wrong with my webhost (though there’s been absolutely no hiccups thus far) and all that I’ve type will just disappear. Thus, I’ve taken a liking to desktop applications as in my opinion, they’re a much more “stable” way for me to write articles, reviews or blog posts. On the Mac, my favourite text editor is undoubtedly Writeroom.

In fact, I’m writing this very post in Writeroom now. It is a pretty basic text editor that doesn’t have a lot of features that many have grown accustomed to in Microsoft Word. You’re able to do some basic stuff with it, like change text size, colour or the type of font you use, other than that, it acts more or less like notepad, albeit slightly more powerful. However, it’s main purpose is not to be used as a text editor, rather, it is to allow writers to have a distraction-free environment to write in, as the name of the program would suggest. Why is that so?

For the simple fact that by hitting the Escape key (the default keyboard shortcut) while the program is open, you’ll immediately enter fullscreen mode whereby everything goes black and you only see your document in the font colour of your choice. Personally, I use white on black as they’re the most contrasting colours, however by default the words are a certain shade of “Matrix-like” green, if you get what I mean. This may seem ridiculously simple, yet it’s amazingly effective. By blacking out every other application, one is able to concentrate fully on writing, thus allowing you to be extremely productive unlike if you were to be distracted by a new email or IM every few minutes. With WriteRoom, everything else is non-existant, and you just get into the mood of writing, allowing you to enjoy the experience even more.

By right, WriteRoom costs $24.95. However, personally I have not purchased the program. Why? Because when you use the free version, the only difference between that and the paid version is a nag screen that appears the moment you open the program. However, you’re able to immediately close it and get on with your writing immediately. The creator of WriteRoom has left this there on purpose, and in my opinion it’s great that he has decided to allow everyone to use his software for “free” as it will be really beneficial to a lot of people.

Still, I plan on purchasing this program pretty soon, more of a gesture of Thanks that anything else. I’ve been using program for quite some time now and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. For those of you Mac users/bloggers, I suggest you start using this program now if you haven’t been all along. It’ll make your blogging life so much easier and you’ll soon see how fun writing can get with it.

Overall Rating: Just go download it now.

P.S: Windows users, go check out DarkRoom. I’ve got no experience with it, but apparently it’s pretty similar to WriteRoom for the Mac.

TVProducts4Less

Over at TVProducts4Less, They bring you the finest “As Seen On TV” products at very low and competitive prices, at times even lower than that which you see on TV. Furthermore they offer a much faster delivery time, making their products all the more attractive.

They have recently updated their inventory so that there are plenty of new products arriving this summer. Such new products include Zorbeez, Chia Pets, Mr Beer, Clapper Plus and others. As their site name implies, such products are all seen on TV, yet the deals they have here are much more appealing.

Thus, if you’re looking for some of the products that you tend to see on TV all the time, don’t hesitate to go down to Products4Less to check out these new products they have this summer.

Note: This is a sponsored post.

Flock

Nowadays the internet is slowly becoming a larger part of our lives as each day passes. With us entering what is known as Web 2.0, webpages have long progressed past the point where they’re merely made up of text and images with a coloured background. Nowadays, with sites such as Youtube, Flickr, Livejournal, WordPress, etc, it has become all the more easier for web users to share digital content with one another. Flickr allows you to share digital photos with one another, Youtube goes one step further and allows you to share videos online while del.icio.us allows you to keep track of your bookmarks online so that you may access your favourite sites from any computer. Of course with this many sites all over the web that help you organise your digital content online, it’s still not easy to control all of them at once as they’re all seperate sites. Flock, a unique web browser that’s still in beta stages, aims to unite these sites under one browser so that you need not navigate from one site to another all the time.

Flock is based upon the Firefox browser and runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, thus you’ll be able to expect all the amazing features that Firefox 2.0 has, such as rearrangeable tabs, ad blocking, security, the great rendering engine, etc. no matter what operating system you are using. Unfortunately, Firefox plugins are not interchangeable with the Flock browser as they are totally different browsers. However, Flock itself has already a huge number of features built in and plugins are also being developed for it.

What sets Flock apart from the rest of the browsers out there? Well, it’s creators aptly call it a “social browser”. Basically, it is able to interact with a multitude of social networking services out there. For example Flickr, del.icio.us, Technorati, Photobucket and many others. Opening the “Accounts and Services” sidebar will show all the services available and also which services you own an account with. By logging into a social networking service and allowing Flock to keep a record of it, you’ll be able to make use of tefficient way. For example, if you have a blog set up with blogger, wordpress or any other blog hosting website, you are able to post to your blog through the browser itself without having to login to your dashboard by accessing the appropriate website. Furthermore, by right clicking on any image on the net, there’ll be an option to “Blog This” and the image will immediately open up in a “New Post” window which will then allow you to post the image to your blog instantaneously after you add some text if you want to. As you’re watching a video on Youtube, you can click on the video and embed it into a new blog post instantly as well. The possibilites are endless.

Furthermore, Flock also has something known as a “Media Bar”. It’s a scrolling bar at the top of your browser window. There, you’ll have the option of viewing all your favourite Youtube videos, your uploaded Flickr pictures, your Photobucket album or any other suitable media stream. This makes for a very interactive web browsing experience as you’re able to constantly view all sorts of digital content and easily share it with everyone through a blog. The possibilities are honestly endless as I’m far from done with listing all the features of Flock.

The default theme for Flock is also very eye catching and looks great, fitting in great with the style of being a “social browser”. Flock also has this homepage entitled “My World”. There you’ll be able to view all sorts of useful information, such as a few of your favourites, your recently visited sites, new articles from various RSS feeds, updates such as comments on your blogs, etc. My World is definitely a great starting place when you first fire up your web browser everyday, waiting to see what’s new on the web.

There are also many little useful features here and there that will undoubtedly make your web surfing experience all the more easier and fun. For example your recently searched terms and also suggested terms are listed nicely when you begin to type in the built-in search box. There is also a “Feeds” sidebar built into Flock, which already has a few default feeds in it. Obviously, you’ll be able to add your own feeds as you find those you like. In my opinion this is a much better way to read your RSS feeds since you’re able to do so in the sidebar itself, without having to open up an entire new window or tab just to go through your RSS feeds, just like what you would have to do with Firefox’s built-in RSS reader. Flock also has a special “Web Clipboard”, essentially, you’re able to easily drag and drop text or images to the clipboard anytime you’re surfing the web. When you feel the need to retrieve some of the content, you simply open up your web clipboard and drag out the text or image you need to a blog post or any other appropriate area. This makes it really easy to keep track of certain notes as you surf the web and you are also able to temporarily store images which you deem interesting for future use. All in all, a really great function that will ease the lives of many web surfers who are constantly having problems with organising random snippets of information which they gather as they surf around the massive world wide web.

While Flock is a relatively new browser, it is constantly being updated, and a version 1.0 release is not far away. Furthermore, extensions for Flock are also being developed. While Flock might never have the same number of extensions which Firefox does, it will still fulfill the needs of most people. Besides, those people who rely heavily on certain extensions in Firefox might as well stick to that browser, it’s probably the best browser there is now. However, for those of you who spend a lot of time on sites such as Youtube, Flickr, del.icio.us, etc. enjoying interesting digital content all the time, Flock might be a more useful browser for you rather than Firefox,

I haven’t been using Flock for very long, and I’m sure I’m far from discovering all the great features it has. Considering how it’s still in beta, I can only imagine what version 1.0 will be like. For those of you who are interested, you are able to find out more information about Flock at their official website. The latest version at the time of this writing is version 0.9.0.1 which contains all the features that I’ve talked about here and more. If you’re tired of Firefox’s endless extensions and simply need a browser that will help you easily organise your digital media online by integrating all the popular sites out there into one browser and thus allowing you to easily retrieve and share fun and exciting digital content with everyone else on the web, Flock is definitely the browser for you.

Driveway

While one is definitely able to send files to others by attaching the file onto the mail. Unfortunately, many a times we need to send big files which simply refused to be attached on to an email message. Most email providers limit the maximum attachment size to 10mb only, thus it’s impossible to send larger files. However, thanks to various file sharing websites around the web, we’re now able to easily send large files as well. One such file sharing site would be Driveway.

Compared to other file sharing sites around the web, Driveway is a relatively new site. However, the service it offers is a really competitive one. The maximum file size is a whopping 500mb and more importantly without any download limits at all. All you have to do is access the website, browse to the file you want to upload and wait for the upload to finish. It’s that simple.

However, it doesn’t stop there. Driveway also provides users the ability to share the documents they upload to Driveway, thus by installing a widget, you’re able to access your document from your desktop. It makes use of Microsoft Office to edit the file which is still stored on the Driveway server, when you’re done editing just save it back on to the server, all the while not having to download the file at all.

All in all, Driveway certainly seems like a promising file sharing website, with a huge file size limit and no download limits at all. Those of you who are scratching your head wondering how to send a friend or relative of yours a video clip of your vacation, check out this site.

Note: This post was sponsored by Driveway.

Bloggerwave revamped?

NOTE: THIS IS **NOT** A SPONSORED POST

Recently, I did a sponsored review of Bloggerwave which is a new site where bloggers are able to sign up for jobs to earn money from. When I logged in today, to my surprise it had a totally new homepage and blogger dashboard. There’s a really striking difference between the old page and this new one. On the whole, I’d say that it’s a change for the better. However, the transition is far from done I think, as there are a few bugs here and there. Hopefully they’ll be ironed out soon enough.

Unfortunately, the number of available assignments has not increased yet as word about this site is still not getting out. Hopefully with a revamped site layout it will attract more advertisers and bloggers to use this site, as it seems to be pretty promising. For any blogger reading this post, I’d highly recommend you to check out this site.

While Bloggerwave is far from being as established as PayPerPost or Reviewme is, there’s absolutely no reason why it should be any more inferior to such sites. They offer the same service for the same competitive price, the only reason why it’s not as successful now is due to there being a lack of interest in it as many bloggers and advertisers alike still don’t know about it. Only time will tell if Bloggerwave will be able to succeed just like PayPerPost did or fail miserably. I for one am hoping that it becomes a major success as it definitely deserves to become a much more popular site.